Fallacy · Leaning on the wrong support
Appeal to tradition
Also called: “We’ve always done it this way”
Treating a practice as right because it is old or customary.
What it is
Long use can mean a practice has been tested and works. It can also mean nobody has questioned it. Age alone cannot tell the two apart, so the reasons for the practice still have to be looked at.
An example
“Students have always written exams by hand here, so typing them would be wrong.” The tradition may have reasons, or may just predate computers.
How to spot it
The only reason given is how long something has been done.
How to answer it
“What was it for, and does that reason still hold?”
When it is not a fallacy
A long-standing practice deserves a fair hearing before it is changed, since it may hold lessons nobody wrote down.
Printable sheet of all fallacies
Cite or share this page
A plain reference you can paste into notes or an essay:
Quest2Reason. “Appeal to tradition.” https://quest2reason.com/learn/ideas/fallacies/appeal-to-tradition. Accessed 13 November 2026.